Assessment and Correlates of Different Phenotypical Characteristics of Psychological Flexibility in Adapting to Chronic Pain: A Feasibility Study.

Objectives: This study examined the feasibility of a research protocol for assessing psychological flexibility in patients with chronic pain to gain insight into the uniqueness of different phenotypes of psychological flexibility and to tentatively test whether psychological flexibility is associated with effective adaptation to chronic pain.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, in twenty patients with chronic pain, different phenotypes of psychological flexibility and a variety of positive and negative health indicators were assessed. Correlations were explored to determine the unicity of the different phenotypes of psychological flexibility and to test their associations with chronic pain.

Results: All phenotypes of psychological flexibility could be assessed reliably in this patient group. Preliminary findings suggest that all phenotypes assess unique flexibility aspects (79% of the intercorrelations were less than moderate; > -0.30, < 0.30). Higher levels of different psychological flexibility phenotypes were generally associated with higher positive health indicators and lower negative health indicators (70% of the moderate correlations; ≤ -0.30 or ≥ 0.30 were in the expected direction).

Conclusions: Results confirm that the protocol is feasible for large-scale research in patients with chronic pain and that it is useful to further investigate the different phenotypes of psychological flexibility in relation to optimal adaptation to chronic pain in a longitudinal study.

Practice Implications: Psychological flexibility is a potentially important future target in the treatment (e.g., biofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness) of patients with chronic pain.